The Senate confirmed Kenneth Braithwaite as the next secretary of the Navy via voice vote on May 21.
Braithwaite, who previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Norway, succeeds acting Secretary Thomas Modly, who resigned in April amid criticism of his removal of the commander of the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier. Army Undersecretary James McPherson has been serving as acting Navy secretary in the interim.
Braithwaite is a 27-year veteran of the Navy and Navy Reserve. He began his career as an aviator before switching to public affairs. He rose to rear admiral in the reserves and served as the Navy’s vice chief of information before leaving the service.
Braithwaite, a Navy veteran, told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing in early May that he supports building a 355-ship Navy, investing in attack submarines, and considering another destroyer block-buy.
The Navy is scheduled in 2031 to begin swapping out its current fleet of 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines with 12 Columbia-class vessels. The new boats will be built at the General Dynamics Electric Boat’s shipyards in Groton, Conn. The program is expected to cost about $130 billion, the Government Accountability Office said in 2019, citing Navy figures.
The Columbia-class submarines will continue to be loaded with Trident II-D5 missiles tipped with W88 or W76 nuclear warheads from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration. A “small” number of the W76 warheads are intended to be low-yield W76-2 weapons, according to the agency.
